Profile of the programme

The second cycle degree course in Architecture combines in-depth theoretical study of core professional subjects with a strong applied-technical component in design. Courses in the different design disciplines (architectural composition, restoration, urban studies and Architectural and construction technology) are organized within laboratories where the student, supported by his theoretical studies, carries out an applied activity during lessons hours; so that from the outset the student is acquiring not just the knowledge, but also the skills necessary to draw and design.
Graduates of the one cycle Architecture degree can sit the state exam to become registered as architect, planner, landscaper, conservator and civil and environmental engineer. The professional skills to be acquired cover a very wide range. An architect has specific skills in architectural design and, in a more general sense, in public works, including reinforced concrete structures, in urban regional planning, building surveying and quantity surveying, as well as in civil works with significant artistic interest and in the restoration and rehabilitation of listed buildings protected by the Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code. A planner has expertise in spatial, landscape, environment and town planning and in the carrying out and coordination of complex and specialized analysis of urban, spatial, landscape and environmental structures. He also has the task of coordinating and managing environmental assessment activities and the feasibility of urban and territorial plans and projects. A landscaper has expertise in the design and supervision of works relating to gardens and parks; in the preparation of landscape plans; and in the restoration of historical parks and gardens. A conservator operates in the field of conservation of architectural and environmental heritage and diagnosis of processes of decay and damage of architectural and environmental heritage, identifying measures and techniques for their restoration or recovery.
The possibility of sitting the state exam for engineers also involves acquiring skills in design, development, supervision of works, estimate, testing, management and evaluation of the impact of buildings, structures, infrastructures, and civil systems on the environment and the territory.
Legislation states that, as far as Architecture degree courses are concerned, each University will choose whether to keep the traditional 5-year degree or move to the 3+2 system (three-year first cycle degree plus two-year second cycle degree). The University of Parma has chosen the latter option, the only one in the Emilia Romagna region to have a (two-year) Degree Course in Architecture in completion of the (three-year) first cycle degree course in Architectural Science. The second cycle degree, the conclusion of the so-called 3+2 cycle, has exactly the same legal and essential value as the traditional one cycle 5-year degree.
Admission to the second cycle Architecture degree course requires a three-year degree or university diploma, or other study qualification obtained abroad and recognized as equivalent, as well as the following academic prerequisites:
- students must have graduated from the previous university studies with a minimum mark of 90 out of 110;
- students must have obtained, in their first degree, at least 125 university credits in the relevant subjects and activities defined as basic, specific, related and supplementary by the study programme of the Architectural Science degree, class L-17, of the University of Parma.
Students who have earned a first cycle three-year degree with a mark below 90 out of 110 must, before completing enrolment, sit an oral exam that will test whether they possess the basic knowledge deemed essential for admission to the second cycle degree.
We are satisfied about the choice we made and its results: in recent years the majority of students have obtained their degree within the set three years and have gone on to the second cycle degree.
Currently, 485 students are enrolled in the second cycle Architecture Degree course. The courses are organized in accordance with European Directive 85/384/EEC concerning the reciprocal recognition of diplomas, certificates and other qualifications in the Architecture sector.

Key learning outcomes

The Master’s Degree course in Architecture was designed with the principal objective of training professional figures able to design, thanks to architectural tools and their mastery of the tools related to construction of the work planned, the realization, conversion and modification of an anthropic environment with full knowledge of aspects of aesthetics, distribution, function, technical construction, management, economics and environment. The master’s graduate’s specific competence will be preparing building projects and directing their realisation by coordinating other specialists and operators in the fields of architecture, construction engineering, town planning and architectural restoration. The curriculum will be taught either through workshops or specialist courses. While the first year of the course will be exclusively practical (planning, town planning, restoration, construction, executive representation), the second year will be composed, excluding work on the final dissertation, of specialist courses on the more professional aspects of building sites, legislation, surveying, evolved technological components and architectural historiography.

Final examination, if any

Upon completion of the course the final exam must testify to the cultural growth of the student in their field of study. To this end, the final exam consists of a progress report on an advanced and/or innovative subject in a discipline from the course, chosen under the supervision of a professor on the course. The report is discussed in front of a Commission, usually composed of professors from different disciplines. The discussion must make clear in particular the capacity gained by the student to select and use independently and critically the methodologies of analysis acquired during the training on the one hand, and the flexibility to use other interdisciplinary frames of reference on the other.